The Rif Dimashq clashes were a series of unrests and armed clashes in and around Damascus, the capital of Syria, from November 2011 until a stalemate in March 2012. The violence was part of the wider early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war. Large pro-government and anti-government protests took place in the suburbs and center of Damascus, with the situation escalating when members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) started attacking military targets in November.
It is claimed that in January 2012, parts of rural Damascus and the Damascus suburbs started to fall under opposition control. On 27 January 2012, the Syrian Army launched a military operation which retook the Damascus suburbs and the town of Zabadani with the offensive ending on 11 February. However, fighting still continued, when on 15 February FSA fighters were seen on the streets of a district in the Damascus centre, trying to recruit opposition protesters and mingling with them. A few anti-government protests were still ongoing after the army offensive.
On 12 March 2012, major clashes were reported in central Damascus between the FSA and the Syrian Army for the first time. By April 2012 a fragile cease-fire was brokered by the UN peace envoy Kofi Annan. However, following the cease fire collapse, by July 2012, rebels erupted again into most Damascus suburbs and rural areas around the city, launching the Battle of Damascus, also known as Operation Damascus Volcano.
2011 unrests and clashes
Large anti-government protests were shot at by Shabiha, killing 23 protesters in a single day. More were killed in October and November. Ten more protesters were killed around Damascus, including a 14-year-old boy.
Fourteen were killed in house-to-house raids and in protests in Damascus suburbs, and an activist in the eastern Damascus suburb of Harasta, who gave his name as Assem, said three deserters were killed after they abandoned military units which fired live ammunition at a demonstration of 1,500–2,000 people in the al-Zar neighbourhood. "Security police could not put down the demonstration. The eight soldiers defected when Republican Guards and the Fourth Armoured Division were sent in," he said.
November 2011
On 16 November 2011, according to opposition sources, Syrian army deserters attacked a military intelligence office in Harasta, a suburb of the capital Damascus, killing six soldiers and wounding more than 20. "The Syrian Free Army struck with rockets and RPGs" (rocket-propelled grenades) said Omar Idlibi, the Beirut-based spokesperson for the opposition Syrian Local Co-ordination Committees. It was also said that all the army defectors involved returned after the attack. All other attacks targeted military checkpoints in the suburbs of Douma, Qaboun and Arabeen and Saqba, killing three soldiers. A Russian official said that the outbreak of fighting in Damascus "looks like a civil war."
On 20 November 2011, a loud explosion was reported to have occurred in the heart of Damascus, the Syrian capital, amid reports of a grenade attack on offices of the ruling Baath Party, the boldest attack by army defectors at the time.
The Free Syrian Army later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the building.
December 2011
In December 2011, Al Jazeera published an article stating that protesters in the suburbs of Damascus gathered every evening to make their support for the Free Syrian Army known. Seeing though that this disinformation did not bring anyone to the streets, the article was later changed into.
On 4 December 2011, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that a funeral procession was held on Sunday for 13 soldiers who were killed. It claimed that they were killed while in the line of duty in the Damascus countryside.
On 9 December 2011, two children, aged 10 and 12, were among others killed by Syrian security forces on Friday in Homs and on the outskirts of Damascus, rights groups said. On 13 December, another person died.
On 23 December 2011, Syrian state TV claimed that two explosions at security bases in Damascus were caused by suicide bombers; a number of military personnel and civilians were killed. At least 44 people were reported killed and 55 others wounded. State television claimed that "several soldiers and a large number of civilians" had been killed in the bombings although an exact figure was hard to ascertain.
On 29 December 2011, Syrian security forces opened fire on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque in a Damascus suburb called Douma, close to a municipal building that members of the Arab League monitoring mission were believed to be visiting. At least four protesters died. Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the one-man British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said about 20,000 people were protesting outside the Grand Mosque in Douma when troops opened fire. Cars belonging to the Arab League monitors were seen in front of a municipal building close to the mosque, he said. Abdul-Rahman and other activists said the monitors were barred by security officials from entering Douma following the killings, after the situation deteriorated.
2012 unrests and clashes
January 2012
On 4 January 2012, a journalist, host for state-owned Radio Damascus, and editor for the state-owned daily Al-Thawra, was shot in the head by unidentified gunmen on Friday in his home in the Damascus suburb of Darya. State television reported that the journalist was targeted by "armed terrorist groups."
On 6 January 2012, SANA claimed that another suicide bomber killed at least 26 when a police building or intelligence building was attacked. However, the opposition pointed the finger at the government, saying "this is a plot staged by the government to deter thousands of people that were planning to converge on that same spot to call for the international community to step in and enforce a no-fly zone and enforce also a dramatic end to the regime". Later SANA reported the death of General Mohammed Abdul-Hamid al-Awwad, claiming he was assassinated while he was headed for work in the al-Ghouta area of Damascus. His driver, who was injured, said, "as we were heading to the Brigadier General's military unit, we saw a taxi on the right of the road…it overtook us and then blocked our way. Four gunmen started shooting at us. Brigadier al-Awwad was shot in the head and I was also injured."
On 7 January 2012, 14 protesters were said to have died though a roadside bomb blast and anti-government protests on the same day.
On 12 January 2012, state TV reported that an army bus was attacked in the area of the Damascus countryside with another roadside bomb and gunfire, killing four soldiers and wounding eight. Six more soldiers (including a colonel) were killed in battles around the province, according to the Syrian government.
On 19 January 2012, a Syrian security officer was killed after the bombing of his car in the al-Tadhamun neighborhood in Damascus.
On 22 January 2012, amidst a battle in the suburb of Douma, two officers, a soldier of the Syrian Army and a deserter were killed in the Talfita area.
Rural Damascus came under rebel control. At the police hospital in Harasta, the staff said most of rural Damascus was not controlled by the government forces and gunmen were kidnapping and killing those affiliated with the government in those areas. "Any car plate that belongs to the government cannot drive inside Harasta, we as doctors cannot go, they hijacked one of our cars a week ago," said a doctor.
According to the Syrian government, Brigadier General Hassan al-Ibrahim and a first lieutenant were killed when their car was fired on in the Damascus countryside.
Syrian Army offensive
On 27 January 2012, the Syrian army stormed Douma.
On 28 January 2012, seven more soldiers died around Damascus amidst the offensive. They were ambushed. Later SANA reported that the bus was ambushed near Douma, and it was carrying army officers, in which seven of the officers died.
On 29 January 2012, the Syrian army launched an offensive, trying to retake some of the Damascus suburbs from rebel control. Amateur video appeared to show tanks rolling in to Al-Ghouta and Zamalka to the east. Al-Ghouta is historically known for being a hub of dissent against the Assad government, and the crackdown appeared to be an attempt "to avoid any Tahrir Square-style mass movements,". According to activists, 14 civilians and five opposition fighters were killed in shelling of neighbourhoods. 2,000 pro-Assad forces, 50 tanks, and armoured vehicles took part in the offensive. However, they met fierce resistance, and six government soldiers, including two officers, were killed and six wounded in the opposition-controlled suburb of Sahnaya when their bus was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb. Some activists claimed that the fighting in Damascus was not unusual, and there were not any tanks in the city, while others said that it was "the worst fighting around the capital in the 10-month uprising." Clashes were also reported near the Damascus airport, leading to its closure. "It's urban war. There are bodies in the street," one activist, speaking from Kfar Batna told Reuters.
Other Damascus suburbs that have come under fire from heavy artillery and mortar rounds from government forces include Douma, Saaba, Arbin and Hamuriyeh, activists said. "The more the regime uses the army, the more soldiers defect," Ahmed al-Khatib, a local rebel council member on the Damascus outskirts, told the AFP news agency. A spokesperson for the rebel FSA, which at the time, had 40,000 men and whose leadership was in Turkey, said that the fighting came a day after "a large wave of defections," with 50 officers and soldiers turning their back on Assad. At least two generals and other "high-ranking officers" reportedly defected to the opposition.
After two days of clashes, oppositions and FSA sources confirmed that the Syrian army regained control of some of the eastern suburbs of Damascus from the rebels and started to make house-to-house checks and arrests. Hamouriyeh was taken by the Syrian government, as was Kfar Batna by the end of the clashes. FSA and government forces still fought in the suburb of Saqba, according to an activist. However, the Free Syrian army regained control of at least one suburb, Douma, and destroyed one tank and also killing three government snipers. Another 11 soldiers had been killed in the government offensive on the Al-Ghouta suburb, as well as six civilians.
On 30 January 2012, the fighting subsided as the Syrian army extended their control in Ghouta. The military also advanced through Saqba. An activist said that the FSA moved out of the suburbs and that the Syrian army arrested 200 opposition members in Hammourya. The death toll given by activists was 19 civilians and six FSA fighters, while the overall number of those killed in the previous three days, since fighting in the area started, was 100. After the fighting, the Free Syrian Army withdrew to unidentified positions within ten kilometers of Damascus.
On 31 January 2012, the Syrian army continued to advance in order to crush the last FSA pockets. The army fired into the air, as they advanced with tanks even beyond the positions from where the FSA withdrew. Activists stated that the suburbs were on unannounced curfew while others were allowed to flee. The army conducted arrests on suspected people in the district of Irbin. In some instances, curfews were defied by some citizens, who put up a large opposition flag in the centre of Damascus.
February 2012
On 1 February 2012, the Syrian army extended their cleaning operations, with more troops moving into the mountainous area of Qalamoun, north of Damascus. Further north, the troops which took control of Rankous started to extend their control into farmland surrounding the city. In the eastern suburbs of Mesraba, activists reported that army snipers were positioned and that tanks were in the streets. During the fighting in Wadi Barada, located north-west of Damascus in the Rif Damashk governorate, the Local Committee of Coordination initially reported that 12 people, including six FSA fighters, were killed. Four of those died during a tank bombardment by the military in an attempt to flush out the Free Syrian Army units operating in the area. A rebel spokesman put the death toll at 15. Later, the death toll of FSA fighters in the area was raised to 14 by the activist group. The opposition activist group also wrongly stated that the government poisoned the water supply of Wadi Barada; however, there was no independent confirmation and no other media reported the claim. One other FSA fighter was reportedly killed in fighting in the suburb of Moadhamieh. The towns of Deir Kanoun and Ein al Fija were also under army assaults according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria's state news agency SANA said a general, Rajeh Mahmoud, was killed along with three other soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus.